Description:

Monroe James 1758 - 1831

President James Monroe and John Quincy Adams signed appointment of Lewis Cass as Governor of Michigan Territory.

Manuscript document signed, single page on vellum, 15.25" x 13.25". Dated "the twenty fourth day of January, 1820" and signed by James Monroe in full signature 'James Monroe". Countersigned by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams as "John Quincy Adams". Paper seal present with center tear. Uneven toning with sunning to outer edges. Expected folds with overall waviness to the vellum.

In part: "Know Ye, That reposing special Trust and Confidence in the Patriotism Integrity and Abilities of Lewis Cass of the Michigan Territory, I have nominated and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate do appoint him Governor in and over the said Michigan Territory. . . ."

In 1805, Congress organized the Michigan Territory over much of the modern state of Michigan. In 1818, Congress expanded the Territory to include the modern states of Wisconsin and portions of Minnesota. From 1833 to 1836, it also included all of modern Minnesota, Iowa, and portions of North Dakota and South Dakota. Michigan became a state in 1837.

First appointed as territorial governor by President James Madison in October 1813 as a reward for his War of 1812 successes, Lewis Cass served intermittently in that position from 1813 to 1831. In 1820, President James Monroe nominated Cass as Secretary of State, but Cass declined, so Monroe through this document reappointed him as territorial governor of Michigan. He served until 1831, when he resigned to become Andrew Jackson's secretary of war.

Ten days before Monroe signed this appointment, Secretary of War John C. Calhoun authorized Cass to lead an expedition to survey the western part of the Michigan territory. Cass' party of forty-two men, including ten Native Americans, left Detroit by canoe in May and returned in September 1820.

Lewis Cass (1782-1866) was born in New Hampshire and moved with his family to Ohio in 1800. He became an attorney in Zanesville, Ohio, and served in the Ohio House of Representatives and as U.S. marshal. During the War of 1812, he commanded an Ohio regiment as colonel and gained promotion to brigadier general. President James Madison appointed him governor of the Michigan Territory in 1813 as a reward for his military service. He negotiated several treaties with Native Americans to cede large tracts of land. In 1831, he resigned as governor to become Secretary of War for President Andrew Jackson, a position he held until 1836. He served as ambassador to France from 1836 to 1842, and then represented Michigan in the U.S. Senate from 1845 to 1848 and 1849 to 1857, interrupted by his campaign for the Presidency in 1848, which he lost to Zachary Taylor. From 1857 to 1860, he served in James Buchanan's administration as Secretary of State.

James Monroe (1758-1831) was the fifth president of the United States (1817-25). Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, he served in the Revolution, entered politics after the war, becoming a Senator (1790-94) and then Governor of Virginia (1799-1802). In 1803, he helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase for President Jefferson. Monroe served as Secretary of State (1811-17) and Secretary of War (1814-15) under Madison. He was elected President in 1816 and again (almost unanimously) in 1820, receiving 231 out of 232 electoral votes. His popularity was so widespread that he and his party's ascendancy was heralded as the "Era of Good Feelings." His two terms are remembered for the recognition of the new Latin American republics and, of course, the Monroe Doctrine. In his Annual Message of 1823, Monroe responded to European threats of encroachment on Latin American land by declaring that the American continents, "by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European Power." Monroe could do little to back up these statements and it was not until the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt that this policy was given military muscle.

John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), sixth president of the United States, and the son of John Adams. He studied at Harvard and was admitted to the bar in 1790. Having been educated partly in Europe while his father held various diplomatic posts in the 1780s, John Quincy Adams served successively as minister to The Netherlands, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, and Britain. He began his career a moderate Federalist but switched to the Jeffersonian Republican Party around the year 1807. He helped negotiate the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812, and was a brilliant Secretary of State (1817-1825), taking the lead role in formulating the Monroe Doctrine. He won the election of 1824, which was decided in the House of Representatives because no candidate won a majority in the electoral college. Adams's "deal" with House Speaker Henry Clay, whom he named Secretary of State, helped spark the formation of an opposition party around Andrew Jackson. John Quincy Adams served one largely frustrating term as president, and lost in the election of 1828 to Andrew Jackson. Surprising most observers, Adams stood for election to the House of Representatives in 1831 and served seventeen memorable years, becoming a bulwark for civil liberties and a voice in the emerging anti-slavery movement. He defended the "Amistad" slaves before the Supreme Court in 1841, and died of a stroke on the floor of the House in 1848.

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